“It all happened very fast. These groups came into play very quickly,” said West Virginia Democrat Mike Oliverio, an unsuccessful 2010 candidate who was hammered last year by more than $400,000 in TV ads from the conservative Iowa-based American Future Fund and $70,000 in mailers from American Crossroads.

“I think it will be a different situation this time around because we all know what’s coming,” said Oliverio, who is running again next year.

The amount of cash that American Crossroads alone is poised to plow into 2012 races is staggering: After spending $70 million in 2010, the group has set a fundraising goal of $240 million for the election season.

It’s a reflection of a new political landscape created by last year’s Supreme Court Citizens United ruling, where outside groups are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of funds from donors who can remain anonymous.

“For most of the last decade, outside political spending was dominated by Big Labor and liberal groups like MoveOn, which helped House Democrats gain the majority,” said American Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio. “Now, the energy, intensity and money is flowing to Republicans and to promote conservative causes — and understandably the left is anxious.”

Last month, the organization announced that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour had joined its fundraising team and that it was doubling its initial cash-raising goal. American Crossroads will be joined by a smattering of like-minded groups, including American Action Network and Americans for Prosperity, which also are expected to spend heavily in congressional races.

Congressional Democrats say they are under no illusions that they will be able to spend at the same clip.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel, a House member from New York, who has been calling on Democrats to form their own outside groups, told POLITICO that American Crossroads would “raise as much as they could.” Already, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has been fundraising for a new Democratic group, House Majority PAC, soliciting contributions of $5,000 from donors.

This bure BS, it was the American voter that rejected Obama/Pelosi/Reid politics at its worse. It was the American voter that did not want Obozocare and recoiled a the amount of lies and lack of focus on the debt and jobs.

Last year’s ads, Grayson said, made a big difference in the race: They allowed his opponent, now-GOP Rep. Dan Webster, to run mostly positive spots while outside groups did the dirty work of bleeding the incumbent.

Gee whiz. I wonder where the Republicans learned that tactic from? Maybe from that unwashed, wacko collection of socialists, communists, anarchists, and professional protestors currently "occupying" Wall St. in New York City who are being supported by outside leftist groups like Soros and the other Obama supporters.

The left better get used to it. We have your playbook "Rules for Radicals" - and it's being used against you. The Tea Party and these other outside groups are providing the Republican party what it has needed for a couple of generations now - a backbone.

I don't see Democrats properly adjusting to the new, ugly Supreme-Court-created rules of the campaign game. They need to have as many and as wealthy independent PACs as Republicans. Democrats need to hit up their billionaire and millionaire friends to the tune of $600 million or so. They have to fight fire with fire. I'm not suggesting Democrats should lie as Republicans do, but they will need big outside monies to run honest ads that counter Republican lies. Rove was not the first Republican to raise the lie to the dignity of a political instrument, but no one has used that tool more often than Rove. He'll be at it again this time around. If not effectively countered with the well-publicized truth, the lying Republicans will have our undereducated voting majorities across this land believing right is wrong and up is down, as they did in 2010.

Last year’s ads, Grayson said, made a big difference in the race: They allowed his opponent, now-GOP Rep. Dan Webster, to run mostly positive spots while outside groups did the dirty work of bleeding the incumbent.

Gee whiz. I wonder where the Republicans learned that tactic from? Maybe from that unwashed, wacko collection of socialists, communists, anarchists, and professional protestors currently "occupying" Wall St. in New York City who are being supported by outside leftist groups like Soros and the other Obama supporters.

The left better get used to it. We have your playbook "Rules for Radicals" - and it's being used against you. The Tea Party and these other outside groups are providing the Republican party what it has needed for a couple of generations now - a backbone.

Right on.........it breaks my heart hearing this same group of Commies that brought us the "General Betray Us" ads in the New York Times crying about how unfair life is after Citizen's United.........

Obama is a war criminal. The killing of an American citizen, no matter how despicable he is, is a crime. He broke international law by engaging in military operations in Yemen. I can't wait for the Hague to come and get Obama.

American Crossroads and an army of other conservative outside groups played a catalytic role in creating the GOP House majority

What does it mean? It means the MSM has been marginalized and is now subject to review by Fox, the internet, and bloggers.

Prospects for democrats are dim. You can't have a major political party based on; 1) Don't worry about balancing the checkbook. 2) GIve government your money so government can give it to someone who supports it politically.

Democrats, especially progressive liberal democrats, are being exposed. The content of their character is a big problem for them.

Progressives may force Obama to give the LBJ speech in January if the economy has not improved. Progressives may be forced to run a Democratic primary challenger or run a third party Progressive candidate against Obama. Progressives fear that with Obama at the top of the ticket all the Democrats on the ticket with him will suffer during 2012's SHELLACKING.

I just don't see congressional democrats moderating. They won't even let President O'Bama fix social security. Congressional republicans could control congress for a long time. They may even win sixty seats in the senate by 2014. Turf wars between establishment republicans and tea party republicans will be a bigger threat to the republican party than any democrat.

Former Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken Florida liberal who lost his seat in 2010 after millions were spent toward his defeat, is taking another approach: He is running in what is expected to be a newly drawn, more Democrat-friendly district.

Last year’s ads, Grayson said, made a big difference in the race: They allowed his opponent, now-GOP Rep. Dan Webster, to run mostly positive spots while outside groups did the dirty work of bleeding the incumbent. One GOP-affiliated group, The 60 Plus Association, spent more than $1 million against the Democrat.

“Everybody needs to think about it. This is what the Citizens United decision has brought us to,” said Grayson, who noted that he had already seen outside Republican groups airing ads in the Orlando area. “All of those Democrats are going to need to be prepared for the onslaught.”

The ads made a big difference?

I'm sure the fact that he shot his mouth off with "look at me and how stupid I am" comments had nothing to do with it.

Didn't he lose by 18 points? I'd say that's about the point where you might start to just maybe consider "you know, maybe it's me".